Turns out the rumours were true, and Electronic Arts is, in fact, working on a new single-player Black Panther game. It’s coming from the publisher’s new Cliffhanger Games studio formed by industry veterans, including developers from Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor studio, Monolith Productions.
The announcement includes almost no real information about the game — no release window, gameplay details, or even concept art. Like a lot of big-budget projects that get announced way ahead of time these days as companies compete to attract talent, Black Panther is “still early in development with a long road ahead.”
“We’re dedicated to delivering fans a definitive and authentic Black Panther experience, giving them more agency and control over their narrative than they have ever experienced in a story-driven video game,” Kevin Stephens, former Monolith studio head, said in a press release. “Wakanda is a rich superhero sandbox, and our mission is to develop an epic world for players who love Black Panther and want to explore the world of Wakanda as much as we do.”
News of the Black Panther game was first reported last year by journalist and industry insider Jeff Grubb during a Giant Bomb’s Game Mess Mornings stream. Grubb claimed EA was working on a game with the goal of building on the success Respawn garnered from its 2019 single-player open-world Star War game, Jedi: Fallen Order. It’s not yet clear if that will just apply to the ambitions of the Black Panther game’s story or open-world-style gameplay as well.
Marvel has been pushing some of its other biggest characters into games as well. EA’s Motive studio is working on an Iron Man game that seems aimed at appealing to fans of blockbuster story-driven games as well. There was of course Eidos Montreal’s Guardians of the Galaxy and Crystal Dynamics Marvel’s Avengers as well. Also, don’t confuse EA’s new Black Panther project with the espionage thriller starring Black Panther and Captain America coming from Skydance developers Amy Hennig and Marc Bernardin. As we’ve said before, there are a ton of Marvel games in the works now.
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